At least it’s a holiday weekend. Oh, nevermind. I have to work.

Today I returned about 40 phone calls during the course of the day at work, and in addition to that, I routed about 60 out the main office number’s voicemail box.

I don’t wanna rant too long or hard about work, but the facts is we’re doing more with less all the time at that office. And to be honest, I don’t think there’s a boss above me with the gonads to go to the next person up the chain and say “this is unacceptable.” Moreover, nobody there will ever get fired, regardless of how disillusioned, lazy, or irritable they become. If the fin aid office were a sports franchise, the would fire the coach and the GM, and the new people would quickly go to work on re-making the whole team. It’s just not that good.

Meanwhile, the weather in Oshkosh becomes more and more seasonal. I hear it’s supposed to get down into the (GASP!) 70’s for highs over the weekend, too. Fine by me. Summer’s pretty much had it.

I really need to hang some crap on my walls.

Oh, and I have one other item of note: it seems likely that I will be in Oshkosh for the bulk of my holiday weekend, so if you’re inclined to see me or where I live, or something, give a ring.

If I don’t catch you here tomorrow (and the odds are against it at this point), be safe over your Labor Day.

And you freshies moving in to Oshkosh: try not to get hit by a bus 😛

I mean that in the Karen Siegmeier sense, as opposed to the Tony Kornheiser sense.

Work is now officially bat-ass-damn-crazy for the next 2-6 weeks. If I am curt with the blog, it’s because the endlessly repeating questions make me want to carve the word “dumbass” into the chest of every freshman with a letter opener.

Meanwhile, the slow and steady evolution of the Western world into Googltopia continues.

So I had a ticket to the Brewers game tonight. I didn’t go, but I had a ticket…

Lorch didn’t have a chance AGAIN to use his free BP ticket, so he was nice enough to let me have it instead. I was planning to drive down after work, and even nearly had the K-Man join me, but then at the end of the day, I just got caught up in making phone calls back to kids at work, and before I knew it, it was 5:45 and too late for me to make the game.

Idiot.

So I wound up doing some laundry instead. And it was a pisser, because it seems like I missed a helluva contest. Ah, well.

Not a lot else new to report today; I started looking at job listings at some Milwaukee-area colleges and universities this afternoon. This is not to say that I’m immediately planning on changing jobs and moving again, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to keep one’s resume sharp and know what’s out there. I decided that if I send the applications to a couple of these openings, my goal will be to get an interview. (shrugs) I don’t even know that I can do that… God knows the last time I really had to look hard for a job, it was not an easy proposition.

Yep, OK. Gonna go to bed early. Wanna get up early, too. Here’s hoping the Brewers can rip off about 6 or 7 or 8 wins in a row (haha, whatever).

So I got the filing done yesterday. I’m sure you were concerned.

This means that I’m very nearly to the point of being “caught up” with settling in to this joint. I might even be able to hang up some pictures on the wall soon.

What’s the point, though, when you’re only going to live in a place for 10 more months?

But whatever.

I haven’t gotten any writing done in a very, very, very long time. I think I’ve sort of forgotten how to do it. I’m not even really sure how to get started again. I suppose I should approach this in one of two ways:
– read a book, so I remember what writing looks like a page
– revise something that I’ve already written, so as to get back in touch with my “voice,” soft, girly, and confused though it is

One way or another, this professional stagnation has to stop.

I had a really brief meeting with the person who will, allegedly, be taking over management of The Wisconsin Review this year. I have to be careful not to influence the place that much. I think not going there that often will help. However, I don’t want to let Paul down, or Knitt, and at the same time, I don’t want to be in charge. I wish I just didn’t care. Then I would leave and it would be easy.

OK, well. I’m gonna start drinking now.

I had a very long post written here, in which I lamented having to work at the uni at this time of year, particularly with two people in my office out on medical leave.

I also mentioned Lorch dropping off a baseball ticket for me.

I accidentally hit the “back” button on the browser, which means that the whole damn thing disappeared, and I’m not going to be typing all of that again. So, I guess that’s the Internet’s loss.

I could say that if your computer is old and slow but you want to run a (relatively) speedy browser, I’ve found the following to be a good alternative:
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/

Also, now that I have the home office set up again, I can bring the joy of being at home to my bedroom..! (Every man’s dream…)

I’m off to file.

I had a lot going on today, but even still, I found the back of my mind busy with figuring out how some of my co-workers’ jobs could be eliminated. Does that make me sound mean?

The server was up and down sporadically throughout the day. I wondered why, but didn’t do anything to rectify it.

Rectify.

Tuesday night, after Michelle’s grandma’s wake, we stopped at Nice Ash for a drink before heading home. I thought about calling Mundschau as soon as we got there, but as it turned out, he had beat us in. He bought us a few drinks, so that was nice. Made the evening a little less stressful, I think.

Thanks on behalf of Michelle to everyone who sent the prayers/wishes/regards… I think that, as one would expect, this will be an adjustment for the whole family, but they’ll get through it with support. Again, thanks to you for that.

In sunnier news… shit. I’ve got nothing. I really need to graduate. Bad, man. Real bad.

Maybe I should go to the doctor. Just for fun.

Michelle is coming up tomorrow night so we can go with Joe & April and a couple of their friends to the hibachi in Appleton. I’m looking forward to that.

Meanwhile, I’m anxious for the Brewers to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs so that all the chumps and hosers holding a candle for this team will get a grip on reality.

Oh, but—do you wanna go to a game before the end of the season?

I’m offering this post as a little etiquette tip for all the young folks out there…

I know it’s difficult for you guys to imagine a time when most people didn’t have cell phones—and even harder to think there was a time when most people didn’t even have answering machines!

But it IS true. It hasn’t always been so easy for us to get in touch with one another on a moment’s notice. So, given this lack of knowledge, it’s understandable that you may feel compelled to pick up that cell phone each and every time it rings, regardless of where you are, what you’re doing, or what is requiring your attention at the given moment.

Have you ever picked up your phone just to tell the person on the other end that you can’t talk right now? Back when your mom and dad were your age, someone trying to call you when you were not at home might be met with only an endless series of unanswered rings. How would they know where you are or what you’re doing??? It seems like it would be troubling to be left under such a dark shroud of mystery, but one way or another, we dealt with it.

Then answering machines came along, and instead of trying over and over to call someone back when they were home, we could at least leave a recorded message for the person we wanted to reach—something like, “Hi, this is Timmy. Could Billy call me back when he gets home? OK, thanks! Bye-bye!” It seems archaic, I know, but it was significant progress at the time.

Some older people (like me, or your mom and dad) got used to occasionally missing a call, and needing to get back to folks (or “peeps”) later on. That’s why we’ve embraced a service that comes with most cell phone plans these days, called “voicemail.” It’s very similar to the answering machine, except that you don’t need a box and a clunky old “cassette tape” to make it work! You can call in to your voicemail right from your cell phone and pick up that message from your friend or loved one, without having to be at home!

With the voicemail system that accompanies your cell phone, you can go ahead and let that call ring through..! I know it will probably be hard at first, but the person you’re talking to or doing business with when your phone rings will appreciate such a rare and singular devotion of attention. The weird part is, by paying closer attention to the people you’re interacting with in person, you may actually find it’s not necessary to call them on your cell phone later, to be reminded of what it is you talked about…

Michelle’s Grandma Brown passed away earlier today after a slow declination of health over the past several months.

On my way down there to assist the fam in any way I can. Hope to have something more cheerful to share again soon…

Hey. Been busy the last couple evenings, so my time for blogging has been limited.

On Wednesday, I headed down to MKE immediately after work to head to the State Fair. I met Jen at home around 6, and Joe dropped us off so we wouldn’t have to park and stuff.

We were waiting for Michelle to finish work before starting on the rides @ the midway, so we ate, and milled around the various animal barns. I like seeing the animals at the fair. My top three are the horses, cows, and pigs. Goats are OK, too.

We also went into the “birthing barn,” and visited the (relatively) new offspring.

I ate like a horse while we were there and at the end of the night, still felt like I had room for more. Here is a list of what I ate/drank within the 4.5 hours or so that I spent at the fair:
Cob of corn
14 oz. Leinie’s honey weiss
Corn dog
16 oz. MGD
1 cream puff
1 “thing” of cheese curds
16 oz. Water St. Brewery Bavarian weiss
Ice cream bar
Half of Michelle’s elephant ear
Frito Pie

I had not had a Frito Pie previously, and it was flipping fantastic. The rides were fun, although the carney running the Gravitron was the biggest dick in the history of carneys. He had a whole mess of absolute rules for riding the Gravitron, and he actually threw someone off for violating one of them. It was completely absurd.

At the end of the night, it started raining like hell and the three of us got completely soaked on the way to Michelle’s car. My clothes didn’t dry overnight, so it was a good thing that I still had some laundry from our road trip at Michelle’s house (wearing wet jeans = not fun).

Then on Thursday night after work, I took a trip over the Poquette’s house to visit the fam and see the new baby, Harper. She is very baby-tastic—cute, small, relatively immobile, and, from what I observed, possessive of a very calm disposition.

I also got a chance to construct a train track for Kilian while I was there, and we also played outside a bit and read a book. Amanda made dinner and it was tasty. I ended up being there later than I originally anticipated, but that was fine with me; we had a good visit…

Tomorrow I’m going to have a visit up in Oshkosh from Kyle and Robin and Punkin, so I’ll have to do a quick sweep around the apartment tonight, and make sure that I’m ready to receive guests. I don’t quite remember the last time they were up in Vegas, but I know it was at least a year ago (shrugs).

Other than that, I should probably just stay on the workie train…

Oh—one last thing: if you try to call me over the next couple days and you’re greeted by a British woman, think nothing of it and please leave a message. My phone is really screwed up for the time being, and until I can either get it fixed or get a different one activated, I’m trying my best to “make due.”

If we don’t talk, here’s hopin you have a good weekend…

I wanted to draw a distinction between that little diatribe and the other stuff I could talk about here.

I did laundry today at a new place, on the southwest side of town. It was on South Park, just past 20th. The building used to be an auto parts store.

It was a reasonably priced laundromat, and not very busy. I’m getting more accustomed to having wifi available when I do the wash, because I try to get some web-type things done while clothes are in the dryer. Today I did the month’s bills and balanced my checkbook while I was there. It’s a good system, I think.

The other laundromat with wifi only gives you 8 minutes per quarter for the dryer. At this one, it was 12. That’s a big diff, man– the same 36 minutes for a full quarter less. When Michelle and I were in Bozeman, we did a load of wash and it was 25 cents for FIVE MINUTES. Talk about taking it in the butt…

I hope that the management of this laundromat appreciates the irony of having a soda machine that DOES NOT take quarters– dollar bills only.

I also swung in to Target and bought MASH and some chalk. I might throw darts yet tonight.

Oh, one other thing– I’ve downloaded this Skype software, so if you’re on that, you could probably call me by such means whilst I’m at home. I haven’t actually set it up yet, so I don’t know what sort of info you’ll need…. I’ll probably update this post later.

But if you’ve tried the ‘SkypeIn’ service, I’m curious to hear your feedback. I’m thinking it might be worthwhile, depending on the limitations of the incoming service…

PS- If you’re on the Skype, my username is jason.a.bock, and if you’re not, you can still call me on the ‘puter by dialing 415-287-4077

OK, well, off to try that, put away clothes, and try to keep the place generally tidy.